In his novel, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky debates the idea of a Nietzsche "superman" and the socialist idea that criminals are influenced by their environments. Friedriech Nietzsche believes that certain persons are capable of being above the law, "supermen" as he refers to them. The main character, Raskolnikov, believes that extraordinary people have the ability to decide their own conscience and that he happens to be one of these "supermen." The environment that Raskolnikov lives in causes him to have murderous delusions. These misconceptions about himself and society lead him to kill the pawnbroker. His poverty and isolation remain as the true reasons for Raskolnikov's crime.

Raskolnikov's poverty drives him to commit murder. He becomes tired of living the way he does, owing money to people, having to rely on his sister and mother for financial support; he desperately wants to emancipate himself and leave the poor...